You Don't Need a New Idea. You Need Your Version.

A lamp seems like such an insignificant thing.

It's a simple device. Turns on. Makes dim light. Nothing a surgeon would ever use to operate with.

But surgeons have their own lamps. Bright. Adjustable. Mounted on articulating arms that swing into position.

Mechanics have their lamps too. Hooked onto hoods. Clipped to workbenches. Angled into engine cavities where no overhead light could reach.

Readers have theirs. Campers have theirs. Dentists, photographers, miners — all of them have lamps built specifically for what they do.

All these lights. All different shapes and sizes. All solving the same basic problem: I need to see.

Why "It's Already Been Done" Is a Lie

Here's the thing that stops most creators: the belief that if something exists, there's no point in making another version.

The lamp already exists. Why would anyone make another one?

But that's not how creation works.

The lamp exists. But the surgeon's lamp didn't — until someone made it.

The reading lamp existed. But the clip-on book light didn't — until someone made it for a different group of people with a different set of needs.

Different People Need Different Versions

This is the pattern I keep seeing:

Every creation has an audience it serves perfectly. And another audience it serves poorly. And a third audience it doesn't serve at all.

Your job isn't to invent something no one has ever thought of. Your job is to make the version that serves your people.

The mechanic doesn't need a prettier lamp. They need one that hooks onto a hood and survives getting dropped.

The reader doesn't need a brighter lamp. They need one that won't wake up their partner.

Same problem. Different context. Different solution.

How This Shows Up in Writing, Business, and Creative Work

In writing: There are thousands of books about productivity. But there wasn't one for your specific situation — your industry, your constraints, your way of thinking — until someone wrote it. Maybe that someone is you.

In business: Every market has gaps. Not because no one has solved the problem, but because no one has solved it for this particular group yet. The solution exists. The specific version doesn't.

In creative work: Every story has been told. But not by you. Not with your voice. Not for the people who need to hear it the way you'd tell it.

The World Doesn't Need New Ideas. It Needs Your Version.

I used to get stuck thinking I needed to create something completely original.

Now I think that's backwards.

The most useful things aren't new. They're specific. They take something that exists and reshape it for someone who's been underserved.

You don't need a new idea. You need your version of an existing idea, for your people.

That's not copying. That's serving.

Keep Creating Anyway

So if you've been holding back because your idea "already exists" — stop.

Of course it exists. That's proof there's demand.

The question isn't whether someone has made a lamp before. The question is: who still needs to see, and what kind of light would help them most?

There's always a different group of people who can benefit from your work.

Keep making.

Try This Today

Take that idea you've been dismissing because "it's been done." Ask yourself: who hasn't been served well by the existing versions?

What would a lamp look like if you built it specifically for them?

What's your version of the lamp?